Can a blood test improve lung cancer screening? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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People with a history of tobacco smoking are recommended to have screening CT for lung cancer, but many of them choose not to be screened. A new study looks at the ability of a blood test to discern who is at risk and possibly motivate people to get screened. Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center director William Nelson explains.

Nelson: These folks came up with a blood based essay of proteins in the bloodstream. They call it the integral model, 21 proteins that they measure how well can these predict who might have lung cancer versus not. The problem they were addressing is that if you look at the US preventive services task force criteria for who should get screened with low dose CT scan it's former smokers who are 50 to 80 years old and have at least a 20 pack year smoking history. That misses 1/3 of lung cancer cases.   :32

Nelson notes that many people undergo routine blood based screening currently. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.